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Are any of you as sick of the leftist media...

...and their barrage of same-sex-marriage (SSM) stories and how they are portraying the church in all of this? It just seems like the socialists in this country are in complete command of every facet of life these days, and the Constitution, morals, and anything not based on socialistic and statist thinking is to be damned.

It's hard to even find a writer that isn't in the MSP grasp. But I did find one soul willing to write what I believe in. Are there any more? Or do the Atheists reign supreme on Potus Place?

This week the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on same California’s Prop 8 and a section of the Defense of Marriage Act which deals with benefits for same sex couples. Same sex marriage is front and center once again and I’ve heard some interesting arguments on how supporting government involvement in defining marriage is a “conservative” ideal. During the Sunday morning talk show circuit, former Bush communications adviser took the moderate position emerging within the GOP against American Values’ Gary Bauer. Nicole Wallace tried to argue that supporting “marriage equality” is a conservative position. No, it is not.

I’ve never understood how anyone who spent the past four-plus years lamenting the size of government could then argue for its increase by inviting it into the discussion of marriage. We complain about government in health care, we complain about government in education, we complain about government regulating soft drink size, but suddenly some of us have no problem with more government in people’s relationships with one another. Marriage is a covenant between a man, woman, and God before God on His terms. It is a religious civil liberty, not a right granted by government. It should never have been regulated by government in the first place, and government shouldn’t have an expanded reach in further regulating it now. There is no allowance constitutionally that invites our government to define the religious covenant of marriage.

I’ve no issue with same sex couples entering into contractual agreements with each other or sharing benefits (the military decisions should be made by those with the credit of service day in and day out, not civilian advocacy groups). Isn’t that the goal of this conflict? If so, to me, that’s an issue separate from marriage. In suing over “marriage” itself one is demanding that God change His definition of the union between a man and a woman. If recognition of status, ease with other contractual obligations, and other issues are the issues, why the need to force people of faith to alter recognition of God’s Word on the matter? The people may bend as reeds to lawfare, but God will not. Frankly, I see no point in being on any side other than God’s on any matter, and God is more small government than any player in the scene.

In suing over marriage one is demanding that others modify their beliefs to accommodate another. Do not people of faith retain their First Amendment liberty of freedom of religion?

California voters in Prop 8 are awaiting to see if elections in their state matter. Advocacy groups vilified Mormons yet according to numerous local media reports based on exit polling data, black and latino communities provided “key support” in the passage of Prop 8. The left had a more difficult time vilifying these voting blocs because it’s harder to ask them for votes later. Despite democracy in our constitutional republic working as it should, voters were sued to have their votes in a taxpayer-paid-for election overturned. The gap in the door will widen for lawsuits if the goal of homogenization isn’t realized. Prop 8 is just the beginning. Do you doubt?
Here are a few recent examples:

- Christian photographers Elane Photography in New Mexico were approached by a same sex couple looking to hire a wedding photographer. Elane Photography politely declined citing their Christian faith and were sued by the couple under the state’s anti-discriminatory laws, and won. In New Mexico you apparently have no right to your free expression and practice of faith any longer. (Read even more about this case here.)

- In Lexington, Kentucky, a t-shirt shop called Hands On Originals was approached by the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization about printing shirts for the group. The t-shirt company politely declined and even sought out quotes and gave the group referrals to other t-shirt printers along with comparable prices. They were promptly sued by the group under Lexington’s anti-discriminatory laws and forced to comply with a lengthy investigation. The city’s power-drunk human rights commission said this:

Raymond Sexton, the executive director of the Human Rights Commission told Fox News that “Hands On Originals” will be “required by law to participate in the investigation.” “We have subpoena power and have the backing of the law,” he said. “We are a law enforcement agency and people have to comply.”

Leftist groups are trying to get the company evicted from their premises, the city now has school districts freezing their business with the privately owned company. Meanwhile, the owner of the company tried to defend his faith and decision in an op/ed in the paper.

– An employee of Allstate insurance wrote an essay online disagreeing with same sex marriage and was reportedly fired from his job as a result.

- Catholic Charities was barred from assisting in adoptions in Massachusetts, Washington DC, and Illinois and excluded from future contracts because they declined to consider same sex couples. Sorry kids, but the agenda impresarios need to make an example.
There are even more examples, some listed on this page, some not, as they are numerous. Pastors in Canada are already facing lawsuits for simply preaching about marriage from the Bible. Tolerance is demanded of Christians but in this pluralistic society, little, if any, tolerance is afforded to Christian beliefs. Christians aren’t the antagonists here, but they do seem to have fewer rights than those engaging in lawfare to bring about forced acceptance.

Really, this isn’t about gay rights. The left doesn’t give a damn about gay rights. Remember, it was the left that instituted Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and it was a Republican group that led the charge to repeal it. The left hasn’t done anything for the gay community except to offer it lip service and inaction. While leftist groups fight for “marriage equality” the Obama administration makes marriage an economic hit with horrible policy. You got bait and switched, leftists! No, the left cares nothing for gay rights, but they’ll pretend to if they can use the bloc as a wedge to pry the populace from the influence of the church. Why? because it’s easier to convince people that their civil liberties fall under the dominion of man, of government, if the church is portrayed as inept and anachronistic. This is the entire goal. Once man, sinful, awful man controls your rights, your existence as an individual ends and your life as a statist serf begins.

So no, “marriage equality” is emphatically nota conservative value or tactic. Anything where the solution is an invitation for government intervention should be viewed with utmost suspicion.

When the one you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.

This was another Redstate article i wanted to post on Monday, but it got past me for some other distraction that pulled me away. Nonetheless, the message remains, and in lieu of Stan's "an historic event" that got all distorted and hijacked, this IS the most important week.

The reality is that whether you accept that Christ lived or not and whether you accept him as the Son of God or not, that so many for so long have accepted the significance of this week in history should not be ignored. The events of this week, culminating on Easter Sunday, fundamentally transformed the world in ways no other event in human history has.

The rise of the Christian, the Christian religion, governments connected to the church, and the missionary zeal have impacted everyone alive today in every country.

The resurrection event shapes our language, our idiomatic expressions, our way of telling stories, the cultural impact of the ideas of grace and redemption, and the map itself.

In a world growing more and more hostile toward the things of Christ, there is renewed zeal to paint the impact of the Church on the planet as mostly negative. Nothing could be further from the truth. Men were filthy savages before Christ rose and much of the world remains that way with or without him.
Frankly, one of the failings of the post-Christian West is the rejection of the idea of original sin and being born sinners. When we remember that men are, at essence and without Christ filling their lives, filthy savages, we are more cautious in our advancement and progress. The Enlightenment and post-Christian West have deluded us into thinking mankind is better than it actually is on its own.

As mankind turns its back on this most important week and its significance, looking to itself instead of the cross, mankind embraces its corrupted soul thinking the world corrupted is Heaven and Heaven itself is hell.

Throughout this week at RedState, ironically coinciding with the Supreme Court taking up the case of “gay marriage,” we’ll be reflecting on the monumental impact of what we do believe was a very real event that impacts our world to this very day.

When the one you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.

The government should have no postition or part of this, and the SCOTUS is part of the government.......the only tie to government this issue has is tax and health insurance. Take away any ramifications marriage has on taxes, as it should be and there goes one part of the equation. And make employers responsible for the other part. It's insantity that everything big and small that has nothing to do with the governace of this country is constantly dominating politics.

The government should have no postition or part of this, and the SCOTUS is part of the government.......the only tie to government this issue has is tax and health insurance. Take away any ramifications marriage has on taxes, as it should be and there goes one part of the equation. And make employers responsible for the other part. It's insantity that everything big and small that has nothing to do with the governace of this country is constantly dominating politics.

The benefit part is an issue if they are federal employees. I mean lets say a person stongly opposes gay marriage. Should they as the ones paying federal employees salariles be forced to pay for something that they object to on moral or religious grounds??

I find it strange that with all the real problems that this country has due to liberal ideas and policies, my side (supposedly) wastes time and effort trying to dictate what others chose to do with their personal lives. I am a married heterosexual. If consenting adults chose to marry people of the same sex, it has absolutely no effect on my marriage.
I'm a believer in liberty. For myself and for others. I live my life according to my values. I don't expect others to live their lives according to my values. I expect others to live their lives according to their values and to leave me to make my own choices and decisions. The problem with most people in this country (left and right) is that they want to dictate to others how to live. The left wants to tell me what kind of gun I can have, how much soda I can drink, when and where I can pray, etc. The right wants to dictate my sex life, tell me what kind of entertainment I can enjoy, etc. We'd all be much better off if we just focused on ourselves and quit worrying about what everyone else is doing with their own lives. Too many people in this country don't understand what liberty means.
One man's opinion.

Matt McKenzie

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." Henry Ford

Very good question, but once again we have to eject these arguments from the law making systems.........marriage is not a legal issue.

Yup, change the tax code and get the government out of the marriage business. And, as Matt so elloquently stated the Libertarian position; what may be best for one person may not be best for another.

The freedom to discriminate is essential to personal Liberty. Life in a free country is about being free to make choices based on your own criteria rather then one mandate by the government...Libertarian blogger

Yup, change the tax code and get the government out of the marriage business. And, as Matt so elloquently stated the Libertarian position; what may be best for one person may not be best for another.

It goes beyond the tax code. One could defend eliminating tax law that says over X for single vs over X for married since married gets screwed either way. BUT taxpayer funded bennies are a legit arguement.
I want to limit them no matter what not increase them. Based on tax code hubby and I should divorce and live together. WE are both CPA's and the numbers say get a divorce and live together.
$1500 less if we divorced no kidding. Just did the taxes and ran the option.